–Vice-President Jagdeo says; points to the restoration of incentives, improvement of the quality of life under PPP/C Gov’t
–affirms intention to be very rigid in the battle against ‘rumors’ and false narratives

GUYANESE faced severe hardships because of the “short-sighted” economic policy pursued by the former APNU+AFC administration, Vice-President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has said.

Contrary to the situation under the coalition, Dr Jagdeo, during a community outreach and simple ceremony at the Sophia Primary School on Tuesday, highlighted the numerous measures and programmes that are being rolled out by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government to improve the lives of all Guyanese.

Reflecting on his brief stint as Opposition Leader, he recalled Guyanese from all walks of life coming to him and talking about the hardships that they were facing under the APNU+AFC administration.
“If you look at the period before COVID, we lost about 35,000 to 40,000 jobs. If you walk around in 2019, a lot of people used to come into my office on Church Street there and talk to me. These are miners, people coming from Linden, the taxi drivers, the shopkeepers, they said to me [that things] are slow.

“Nothing was happening in the economy. People were losing jobs. We lost a lot of jobs and I used to explain to them that this is a consequence of a short-sighted economic policy. Because instead of creating incentives for the industries in Guyana, what APNU did was [take] away the incentives,” Dr Jagdeo said.

Additionally, he said that even those who had overwhelmingly supported the APNU+AFC faced many challenges within their respective sectors.
“So every industry suffered, we lost lots of jobs. Things were slow,” Dr Jagdeo said, adding that the PPP/C, however, is very “deliberate about national development.”

He went on to say: “We mapped out a plan for the development of our country. It’s been a plan that has been there for a very long time. It started with the crafting of the national development strategy.”
Reflecting on Guyana’s transformation from bankruptcy to solvency and then to dynamism, the Vice-President noted that nation’s external debt today is significantly lower than what it was in the 90s.

While pouring cold water on claims by detractors of development, the Vice-President assured residents that the oil resources are being managed in a way that will transform the lives of everyone.
He said that contrary to what is being peddled, money from the oil resources have only been utilised for two years.

Dr Jagdeo added that in the outer years, by 2027, when a lot of the amortization of the investments take place, the country will start seeing revenue of a greater magnitude.
“That’s why we are arguing that in the outer years we can do much more for public service salary,” Dr Jagdeo said while highlighting how much the government has invested thus far in the sectors.

For instance, the budget from 2020 to now, in education has increased by 162 per cent from $54 billion dollars to $135.2 billion.

INVESTING IN THE PEOPLE
Addressing those who criticised the government for investing in infrastructure, Dr Jagdeo said that the government is pursuing a balanced development objective.

“They say don’t build infrastructure, the government [is] focusing on infrastructure too much. But you tell that to the man who has a dirt road in front of his yard that we can’t build that, we must use the money and spend it on consumables. So I spoke about plan-balanced development and that’s what we are about, we were investing in our people through more scholarships…,” Dr Jagdeo said.

While underscoring that the PPP/C does not “drift in the wind,” he highlighted that health care in Guyana will be also be transformed, as 12 hospitals are under construction nationwide.
He went on to call out the Opposition operatives for feeding Guyanese untruths for a number of years.

“Our support is growing because we are working. From the initial establishment of our party, in spite of all that you hear about us…,” he said.
Dr Jagdeo said for a number of years, the other side has accused the PPP/C of being racist.

In response to this, the Vice-President said: “That’s the only thing that the other side can campaign on, because they can’t campaign on track record. So they campaign on racism and that has kept a lot of people away from us.

“So we’re breaking down all those barriers. We’re breaking down those barriers now because in the past, we didn’t spend enough time addressing these rumors enough and they took hold, and we suffered for it and so we’re going to be very vigilant and vociferous in our battle, very rigid in our battle against these rumors.”